🚨 Live Coding Camp - Create a token on Ethereum with us on 31st Jan 2023 Register now
Skip to content
Home » Web3 Glossary » FUD

FUD

what does fud mean fear uncertainty doubt

Understand the meaning of FUD, its origins and usage 📖

FUD, which stands for “fear, uncertainty, and doubt,” refers to an attitude of widespread pessimism about a certain asset or market as well as the manipulation of investor or consumer emotions to make them fall for FUD.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt is said to have been around since the 1920s, but the abbreviation may have started in 1975 when an executive left IBM to form his own business and discovered that FUD was a common tactic used to psychologically manipulate people from leaving the company. 

In the crypto context, the phrase is used to influence public perception of certain cryptocurrencies by disseminating negative, misleading, or incorrect information via social media like Twitter and Reddit.

Popular project: Create your own Ethereum token in just 30 mins

FUD has recently gained widespread popularity because of very volatile crypto markets leading to crypto non-believers saying things like:

  • Cryptocurrency is the biggest scam of all time
  • You’ll lose all your money in crypto, buy real and tangible property instead!
  • Governments will never embrace crypto, there will be bans everywhere
  • Crypto is destroying the environment

There’s a name for people like these: FUDsters!

FUDsters are the complete antithesis of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency believers. These crypto doubters include figures such as Warren Buffet, who doesn’t consider crypto a tangible asset thus not worth it. An occasional skeptic is also Elon Musk who has a love/hate relationship with crypto.

Sound like someone you know? 

Real crypto enthusiasts know there’s not much truth to it, don’t take FUDsters too seriously and don’t fall in the FUD trap. WAGMI, frens!

Example sentence: “Dude don’t fall in the FUD puddle, they’re just haters – HODL your coins!”